Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) are a common technology for providing digital communication over existing twisted copper pair subscriber lines. The subscriber line extends between two DSL modems. A first DSL modem is typically located in the customer's premises, and the second modem may be located at the local exchange (known as the ‘central office’ in US terminology), a street cabinet, or distribution point (sometimes known as ‘drop point’). Typically, the local exchange, street cabinet or distribution point includes a DSL Access Multiplexer (DSLAM), a form of aggregation transceiver device, comprising several DSL modems (one for each subscriber line). The DSLAM (at the exchange, cabinet or distribution point) connects the first DSL modem at the customer's premises to the Core Network.
There are various Network Management Systems within the Core Network to manage and control the various subscriber lines. One form of Network Management System is a Dynamic Line Management (DLM) engine for controlling DSL connections. In current DSL deployments, the DLM engine in the Core Network receives data periodically from a DSLAM relating to all DSL connections to that DSLAM. This data is usually sent at intervals (e.g. once a day) as a bulk data file and includes, for example, the number of retrains or number of errors per 15 minute bin since the last data upload. The DLM engine receives this data from all its connected DSLAMs, and analyzes the data to determine if any actions need to be taken. For example, if one subscriber line has retrained many times, a line profile with a more conservative rate cap may be applied.
The present inventors have identified an issue with the current DLM technique. That is, the DLM engine requires a bulk data file to be uploaded (typically to the Operations Support System, OSS) and processed periodically. As more DSL connections are established in the network, and/or more data points for each line are added, the bulk data file becomes too large to upload and process in a small time frame. This makes the DLM engine slow to react to any issues on the network.
Furthermore, trying to process bulk data for an ever increasing number of lines and/or data points is leading to overload of the systems in the OSS stack. Also, the integrity of the data collection process varies day-to-day as many lines may have incomplete aggregated data due to failures in data collection and processing.
International Patent Application Publication No. 2012/015817 discloses a DLM engine which responds to a disruption on the line (e.g. an increase in errors) by determining and applying an appropriate control setting at the PHY layer which will achieve a known desired effect on a higher-layer application.
It is therefore desirable to alleviate some or all of the above problems.